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I nodded. I needed to stop feeling like I wanted to smile. I wasn’t the smiling type of guy, but that had always felt like something that came naturally to me. In fact, I was usually reminding myself to smile once in a while so I wouldn’t scare people. For some reason, I felt like my goddamn mouth was malfunctioning around Nola. Every time she spoke, it was trying to pull up at the corners.
With an effort, I crafted a typical Jack Kerrigan glare and planted it firmly on my face before I turned and gave her the coffee. “That was four sugars.”
“Gonna need two more,” Nola admitted.
I raised an eyebrow, then pushed the box of sugar packets to her. When she thought I wasn’t looking, she pulled out four and emptied them into her cup, stirred, and sipped. She made a face like it still wasn’t to her liking but smiled and sipped politely anyway.
I leaned against the counter, drinking from my own cup. Our eyes met, and she smiled again into the brim of her mug. The glare I’d been holding as desperately as a lifeline faltered.
Fuck, I was in trouble.6NolaI tugged on the cord of the “open” sign in the front window of the restaurant, killing the neon light. I hopped down from the booth and dusted a few hours’ worth of flour, crumbs, spilled sauce, and whatever else I was wearing from the front of my shirt.
Griff was in one of the corner booths working on a series of drawings, which was so far beyond abnormal for him that I’d asked Tony to borrow a thermometer. But my little brother wasn’t sick, he was just being abnormally non-destructive for once.
Everyone else had left, leaving me with the final task of mopping up before I could officially call it a night.
I nearly jumped out of my skin when there was a sudden, urgent tapping at the glass of the front door. I spun and let out a sigh of relief to see it was just my idiot friends.
I went to unlock the door and let them in.
Luca and Lindsey were that one inexplicable couple that had stayed together since middle school. Literally. Lindsey and I became friends at marine science camp, and just a few months after that, she met Luca. Now the two dorks were happily married, more or less.
Luca went over to screw up Griff’s hair and do his usual round of teasing and play fighting. Lindsey gave me a jumping hug that nearly knocked me over.
It had been three years since Griff and I lost our parents, and Lindsey still hadn’t stopped treating me just a little like some fragile thing that might break without a gushing of emotional support. And I still hadn’t decided if I appreciated it or found it grating.
Either way, I hugged her back, then eventually pushed her away because she refused to be the one to end a hug. Lindsey wore her short hair in a different color every month. Usually, her glasses and shoes were selected to match her hair, and tonight was no exception. It was purple across the board.
Luca was lanky, smooth skinned and pocked with prominent moles on his face that I’d always found unconventionally attractive. He finished messing with Griff just as Lindsey and I sat down in a booth. Some rogue part of my brain decided to point out that I’d chosen the same one Jack had sat in with Damon and Chris a few nights ago. Luca hopped next to Lindsey and threw his long arm around her shoulder, squeezing her in.
“As usual, you two have nothing better to do than terrorize me while I’m trying to work?”
Lindsey crossed her arms. “Work? When we came up to the door, it looked like you were lip syncing into your mop handle and doing a whole lot of not mopping.”
“I’ve been here since this morning. I can take a few seconds off.”
“What’s up with Griff?” Luca asked.
I glanced over my shoulder to see he was still hunched over his artwork. “There was this guy here the other night. His kid had a sketchpad and Griff seemed really into it. I’m wondering if it sparked some sort of interest? Maybe he’s practicing for a career in graffiti or something?”
“Hmm,” Lindsey said. She leaned forward, scrutinizing me.
“What?” I asked. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Because your pupils dilated and your skin flushed right after you said, ‘this guy.’”
I had to fight not to roll my eyes. Lindsey had an undergraduate degree in psychology and was obsessed with crime shows. She thought the combination made her a mind reader.
“So?” she asked. “What’s the story you’re not telling about this guy?”
Luca looked from Lindsey to me, and then back to Lindsey. He wore a proud smile once he apparently decided that she’d correctly dug the truth out of thin air.
